So MSNBC would have us believe that street gangs are takin’ it to the Net.

The 15-year veteran cop used to spend most of his days on the streets, drawing a bead on gang activity by reading graffiti and chatting up members. But that changed in 2004, when his investigation into a deadly drive-by shooting stalled. Some teenagers asked if he’d checked the Internet for clues. Hermanson took their advice, and found himself transported into the little-known realm of “Netbanging.” Across the nation, street gangs have taken their neighborhood feuds, colors and rituals online. Hermanson eventually found chat-room conversations that helped secure two convictions in the drive-by case. Ever since, he’s spent 15 to 20 hours a week scanning Web sites for clues about local gang activity.

Given that the average gang member is functionally illiterate, I find this extremely hard to believe that they are now Takin’ it to the ‘Net. Sure, there may be gang members who have MySpaces pages and who do dumb things like post pictures of themselves with rifles, but there’s a big difference between a few anecdotes and a trend.

When I gooogled itI found 345 references, most of them dead and what was left largely dedicated to either tagging & graffitti (some of which was very cool) or the CapCom game StreetFighter, but that was about it. Searches for some of the gangs mentioned in the story produced no results at all.

Netbanging? Yeah, right.

The conversation that took place in some MSNBC status meeting was probably something like, “The MySpace scare stories aren’t getting the hits they used to. What else can we come up with scare parents?”

“How about, ‘Nerd Gangs,’ Boss?”

“What’s so scary about that? They gonna steal some kid’s calculator?”

“I don’t know Boss. You bought one lately? My kid’s in Calculus now and her new one cost a hundred bucks.”

“Still not scary. Web gangs?”

“Sounds like a pack of spiders.”

“Spiders are scary.”

“No good google hits on ‘Web gangs,’ boss.”

“Google!? Pack your desk.”

“How about “Netbangin,’ Boss?”

“Works for me. Now turn it into a story.”

(Thanks to Tyler Cowen for the link)

Dear _________,

I came across your critique of my Netbanging story while browsing some of the blog traffic it’s getting. While time doesn’t normally allow for this, I thought I’d take a few minutes to respond.

The blogosphere has been much-praised for casting its collective critical eye on traditional journalism, and I applaud your skeptical spirit and your enthusiasm. However, turnabout is fair play, so allow me to return the favor - and politely take issue with pretty much everything you wrote.

>

What is the “average” gang member, and how do you know the “average” gang member is functionally illiterate? Given that this assumption is the launching point for your entire line of reasoning, I’d hope it’s something you can support with evidence. Should you accomplish that, please go to;

http://www.cpixel.com/searchp.asp?person=Mr_ThUgStEr_561&rv=1

Click on some of the pictures filled with young people flashing gang signs. Then note that this single site has in excess of 29,000 hits. Now, scroll down and read some of the comments people have left in the 72-page comments section. In your opinion, what percentage of them are functionally literate?

>

The anecdotes in the story are not intended to prove the existence of a Netbanging trend, they’re there as supporting evidence of a trend that’s identified as such by;

- a 15 year veteran gang detective who spends up to 20 hours a week tracking local gang activity online.

- a New Jersey detective who trains other gang investigators and says he’s seen “an explosion” of Netbanging in the last three years.

- an Illinois gang expert who says Netbanging is turning the Internet into “an electronic alley.”

Whether or not you agree that the opinions of these experienced observers constitues evidence of a trend, I hope you’ll agree that to this point I’ve already provided far more evidence for its existence than you have against it.

>

Your mistake here is assuming that the number of Google hits is a definitive measure of how widespread netbanging is. “Netbanging” is a descriptive term (as distinct from the activity of netbanging) that may not be widely used by “netbangers” themselves, may not have gained a lot of currency outside of a few gang experts who have labeled the online gang activity they observe “netbanging,” and clearly has not penetrated the public consciousness enough to gain wide usage. None of that proves, or even suggests, that there isn’t a proliferation of the activity I labeled netbanging. Also, you say that “most of” the 345 links were dead or devoted to tagging and grafitti (both frequently though not always associated with gang activity, by the way). How many of those 345 links did you actually open? How many is “most?” And are 345 separate Google links, dead or not, not evidence of at least a nascent trend?

>

The only gangs mentioned by name in the story are Clanton (www.clantone.net)
and Mid-City (www.midcitykingdom.com). But here are a few more, just to humor you.

Eighteenth Street Gang - www.xv3gang.com/
Krazy Locos - http://www.krazylocos.4t.com/
Latin Kings - http://www.expage.com/page/amorderey

>

Netbanging. Yeah. Right.

-Daren

I agree with you net bangin ya right. When I did the story with newsweek I specificially told them this not a gang site it was a place to show my art… I am here to defend myself. If you want to know the truth here is my email address webmaster@midcitykingdom.com and just ask…. One other thing if you think gangs members are illiterate you are in for a big suprise….. There is a differance between the movies and real life…. the matrix has a hold on you….

WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT THE AVERAGE GANG MEMBER IS FUNCTIONALLY ILLITERATE?HOW MANY GANG MEMBERS DO YOU KNOW PERSONALLY?HOW MANY HAVE YOU HAD A LONG CONVERSATION WITH?HOW MANY HAVE YOU HAD TESTED TO PROVE YOUR THEORY?NONE…RIGHT?YOU ONLY KNOW WHAT YOUVE SEEN IN MOVIES AND READ ONLINE.OUR WEBSITE WAS DESIGNED AND IS RUN BY TWO MEMBERS OF THE WEST SIDE CLANTON GANG.ONE OF THE OLDEST CHICANO GANGS IN LOS ANGELES, DATING BACK TO THE TURN OF THE CENTURY.WE HAVE A LONG HISTORY,AND STRICT CODE OF HONOR THAT WE TRY TO MAINTAIN TO THIS DAY.WE HAVE CROSSED THE LINE FROM BEING JUST ANOTHER GANG,WE ARE CLAN-TON:ONE BIG FAMILY.OUR WEBSITE SERVES AS A SOURCE OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN GENERATIONS OF CLANTON MEMBERS WHO ALL KEEP IN TOUCH AND CONSIDER THEMSELVES AS I MENTIONED BEFORE…ONE BIG BAD ASS FAMILY!!!SO NEXT TIME YOU FEEL THE NEED TO JUDGE AND CONDEMN GANG MEMBERS AS BEING ILLITERATE OR STUPID,WHY NOT GO TO DOWNTOWN L.A.,OR MAYBE EAST L.A.,WATTS,INGLEWOOD,ETC…AND SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS THERE??PLEASE FORGIVE ANY GRAMMATICAL ERRORS THAT I MIGHT HAVE MADE IN THIS POST….BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM AN ILLITERATE GANG MEMBER??HAHAHAAA….PURO WEST SIDE LOS ANGELES CLANTON 14TH STREET GANG.1ST,2ND,3RD,4TH HOODS,EAST SIDE, AND SOUTH SIDE.TRUE OLD SCHOOL SURENOS POR VIDA.

Big Payaso-

Thanks for weighing in and raising a significant–and previously overlooked–point.

There seems to be a terminology gap here. In your mind, not all gangs are necessarily Criminal Enterprises, but the current connotation is that they are. I’ll be aware of this from now on. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

As I originally stated, though, I don’t think that Web sites like clantone.net are fronts for criminal activity–disputing that assertion in the original news story was the point of my posting!

I worked hard to find research that considered both statistical data as well as sociological research. As I cited in a follow-up,

The participants in this investigation remarked that teens who graduate from ghetto schools do not know enough to get even a minimal 9 to 5 office job…

That wasn’t the researchers’ opinion, that was the opinion of the people they interviewed. And statistics…well, statistics can lie, true, but I don’t think the ones I cited did.

So that’s not to say that all gang members are illiterate–you’re obviously a counter-example of that assertion. Unfortunately, that’s not universally the case. I have not approved a number of comments on this thread due to incoherence, overtly threatening content, and excessive use of profanity.

As to the last time I had a conversation with a gang member…isn’t that essentially what I’m doing right now? ;-)

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS EMAIL ME.

Want to stop gang violence?

Give them free marijuana. Then they’ll be too laid back to do anything.